T&T’s Dylan Carter, a pre-meet medal favourite in the men’s 50 metres butterfly will miss today’s final of the event after losing a swim-off to Austria’s Simon Bucher when the swimming segment of the 2023 FINA World Aquatics Championship splashed off at the Marine Messe Fukuoka, Japan on Sunday.
Carter, 27, got to the wall in 23.26 seconds, but behind Bucher who won the two-man swim off in 23.10.
Earlier on in the semifinals, Carter swimming from lane five in the second event, was joint third with Bucher in 23.05 for the eighth best times, as both swimmers finished behind semifinal heat winner Maxime Grousset of France who went 22.72 to take 0.02 seconds off his own French record of 22.74, which was clocked in preliminary heats, to move up to eight all-time in the event and heads into finals as the top qualifier while Italian Thomas Ceccon was second in the heat in 22.92 for the joint third best time along with Great Britain’s JTT Peters.
The other finishers in semifinal two were Hungary’s Szebasztian Szabo in 23.16 and joint tenth followed by Switzerland’s Noe Ponti (23.26), Canada’s Ilya Kharun (23.27), and his countryman Josh Liendo Edwards in 23.33.
USA’s Dare Rose topped semifinal heat two in a new personal best time of 22.79 to finish ahead of fellow qualifiers to the final Peters, Egypt’s Abdelrahman Sameh (22.94), Great Britain’s Benjamin Proud (22.96), and Portugal’s Diego de Matos (23.04).
The other finishers in semifinal one included Spain’s Mario Yanes (23.16), Holland’s Nyls Korstanje (23.23), and Bulgarian Josif Miladinov in 23.40.
When the preliminary segment of the event began on Saturday night (T&T time), Carter was the third fastest qualifier overall in 22.89 after he ended in the second spot in the eighth of ten heats, with Grousset taking the top spot in the heat and overall in 22.74 while Sameh was third in the heat and fourth best overall in 23.10, Bucher fourth in the heat and 13th overall in 23.32, and Edwards, joint 15th in 23.36 with Miladinov.
A former University of Southern California ‘Trojan’ swimming ace, Carter will now turn his attention to the 100m freestyle on Wednesday, followed by the 50m freestyle on Friday, and the 50m backstroke on Saturday.
Carter, a two-time Olympian, and World Short Course and Long Course medal winner is coming off a stellar showing at the recently concluded 2023 Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Santo Domingo, El Salvador, where he won gold medals in the men’s 50m freestyle (21.87 seconds), 100m freestyle (48.49 seconds), and 50m butterfly (23.32 seconds), all in new games records times.
In addition, Carter also swam to a second-place finish in the 50m backstroke (25.55) and led the 4x100 meters men’s freestyle relay quartet which also featured Graham Chatoor, Nikoli Blackman, and Zarek Wilson to a bronze in three minutes, 22.33 seconds, a new national record.
Prior to his performances at the CAC Games, Carter won two gold medals and a bronze at the three-day AP Race International event.
He won the men’s 50m butterfly at the London Aquatic Centre in 23.21 seconds and also raced to victory in the ten-man 50m freestyle Super Final field in 22.24.
A nine-time gold medal winner over three legs of the FINA World Cup Series last year to be the overall men’s champion Carter also secured the bronze medal in the men’s 100m freestyle Super Final in 48.65.
Before his exploits in England, Carter finished ninth overall on the men’s point table at the conclusion of the three stops of the Mare Nostrum Tour at the Prince Albert II Swimming Pool at the Stadium Louis II, Monaco, France.
The first stop on the tour took place at the 35th edition of the event, in Canet-En-Roussillon, France (May 13-14), while the second leg was contested at th 44th International Swimming of the City of Barcelona, at the Club Natación Sant Andreu.
In Canet, Carter won gold in the 100m freestyle in 48.84 seconds after touching the wall in 49.27 in the heats, while he also swam to the gold medal in the 50m butterfly in 23.36 seconds, a tenth off his season-best 23.25 from March’s Pro Swim Series stop in Fort Lauderdale, and after his 23.73-splash in the heats.
The T&T swimmer, a multiple World Championship medal winner also captured a bronze medal in the men’s 50m freestyle in 22.25 seconds, following a 22.63 swim in the heats, and a similar third-place finish in Barcelona in the 100m freestyle in 49.09 seconds, after his 49.23 clocking in the heats, while he was fourth in the 50m butterfly in 22.27, to improve on his 22.41 timing in the heats.
Fellow national swimmer and Olympian, 31-year-old Cherelle Thompson is the lone T&T woman set to compete in Japan and will do so in the 50m butterfly on July 28, and the 50m freestyle on July 29.
Thompson, competing in her lone event at the CAC Games, earlier this month, swam to a bronze medal in the women’s 50m freestyle in 25.92.
